Parallel-blade radiator grille



Dec. 25, 1934. B. GREEN PARALLEL BLADE RADIATOR GRILLE Filed May 24, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 25, 1934. A L, B. GREEN PARALLEL BLADE RADIATOR GRILLE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 24. 1954 Patented Dec. 25, 1934 v UNITED s TAT E-s PATENT OFFI'C PAaA LEL-BLADEn mA'ronGni LE- 7 Lee B; Green, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to The Globe Machine & Stamping Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application May 24, 1934, serial No. 727,268

7 Claims; (01. 293-54) .My inventiongrelatesto the class of grilles in which the grille blades are generally parallel to each otherand are cross-connected to each other by one or more cross-bars which extend behind these blades, and in which the frontal grille face is not planar.

So called radiator grilles, as used on passengerautomobiles, have long been constructed for affording a V-frontefiect, namely one in which the extreme forward portions of the generally upright blades in the two lateral halves: of the grille are respectively tangential to two'planes which diverge rearwardly, and the blades are commonly of a U-section. With such a grille, it is advisable .to have the medial planes between the two channel webs of the blades all parallelto one another and at right angles to the generalrplane of the frontal radiator-shell opening which is guarded by thegrille, so that the air admitted through the passages between the successive blades will flow in parallel streams towardthe usual radiator core behind the grille.

When each blade has both webs thereof provided with rearwardly projecting tabs for anchoring the blade to the cross-bars, thisparallel disposition of the blades can be obtained (afterthe mannerof Figs. 2and 3 of my United States Patent i i-1,914,253 of June 13, 1933) by making one web of each blade wider than the other; or the blade webs can be of equal width, with the rear edge of one web engaging the front of each crossbar while the rear edge portion of the other web extends into a slot in the cross-bar, as shown in Figs. 4 .and 6'of the samepatent. However, in

either case, every web edge which engages the frontof the cross-bar does not seat squarely on the cross-bar, so that the resulting anchoring is not as rigid as would bedesirable.

Moreover, when the blade webs are of equal width, sothat one of each of the pairs of slots extends only through the. part of the channelback ofa cross-bar which is between the channelwebs of that cross-bar (as in Fig. 4 of my said patent), this slot requires a punching operation, while the companion slot (which extends entirely across the cross-bar) requires a sawing operation, thereby undesirably increasing themanufacturingcostp Furthermore, the grille construction of mysai'd patent is Inot-rea'dily feasible when the angle of part of-agrille to produce the desired appearance. Still further manufacturing difliculties have been encountered when using the construction disclosed in my'said patent for bowed front (or so called-barrel front) grilles, because the needed bowed cross-bars would have their fronts extending at consecutively different angles with. respect to the medialplanes between thewebs of the U-sectioned blades in different portions of each-lateral half of a grille.

My present invention aims to overcomeall of the above recited manufacturing difficulties and enhanced manufacturing costs by providing a grille in which each. U--sectioned blade will each have the rear edges of both of its webs seated. squarely on the fronts of the cross-barsand by providing a cross-bar construction which will permit this square seating of the blade webs while also giving the-selected non-planar shape to the frontof the grille and which will afiordthe desired firm anchoringof the'blades to the crossbars to be effected with the use of counterpart blade-engaging portions of each cross-bar throughout-the length of that bar. 7 Furthermore, my invention aims to provide an -expeditious and economical method of manufacturing the'needed cross-bars which will in-- sure'an: exact spacing of the consecutive blades of thegfgrille regardless of variations in the stretching ofthe metal from which. these crossbarsare-formed. Illustrativeof my invention, I Fig.1 1 is 'airagmentary'perspective viewof -a grilleiembo'dying myJinvention and designed for presenting a-V-front appearance when, used on the radiator shell front of an automobile, with the: spacing between consecutive blades, magnified for the sake of clearnessl 1 Fig.i2.is an enlarged and fragmentary horizontal' sectio-n'taken along the'line 22ofFig. 1. FigJBEis-Zan enlarged vertical section along the medial plane betweenthe webs of'one of the rearwardly open U-sections, as for example along the line 33 of Fig. 2. 1 Fig. 4-isasection allied to Fig.2, showing the cross-bar as formed for giving a sharper V-ang-le to the front of-the grille. w I I Fig.5'is anfenlarged perspective view of a'portion of one of the blades, showing the adjacentflanchoring tabs as, initially formed on the new s-ar arview Q 'a s' P id QHQ of the cross-bars, drawn on a larger scale than Fig. 6 and including a part of a blade anchored to this cross-bar.

Fig. 8 is a section allied to Fig. 2, showing an end portion of a cross-bar formed for giving the grille a forwardly bowed or so called barrel front appearance.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary vertical section through the lower or stationary portion of a die used in punching the slots in the cross-bar of Figs. 1, 2 and 6, showing the part of the cross-bar. seated on this lower die block, as this cross-bar part appears before the slots in it are punched with the die plunger of Fig. 10. g

Fig. 10 is an elevation of the corresponding portion of the plunger of the die, and Fig. 11 is a perspective view of the end portion of this plunger part.

Fig. 12 is transverse vertical sectionthrough the die-block of Fig. 9 and a cross-bar seated on that block, taken after the slots have been formed in this cross-bar by the plunger of Figs. 10 and 11.

Fig. 13 is a section allied to a portion of Fig. 2 but drawn on a larger scale and including the corresponding blades as they appear when anchored to the cross-bar after the manner disclosed in my copending application #688,634,

filed September 8, 1933 ona Grille for automo-' bile radiator fronts.

Fig. 14 is a section taken along the line 14-14 of Fig. 13.

In manufacturing the parallel-bladed upright grille shown in Fig. l, I first provide U-sectioned louver blades L each of which has each Web thereof provided at its rear edge with rearwardly projecting tabs T, as in Fig. 5, the center lines of the pairs of the tabs on the blades being spaced to match the spacing of the medial planes between the channel webs of the several cross-bars, after the manner disclosed in my aforesaid United States Patent #1,914,253 of June 13, 1933 on a Louver-type grille for automobile radiators.

Then, by means well known to those'familiar with punch presses, I provide rearwardly open channel-sectioned cross-bars each of which is formed sothat the rear edges C of its channel webs C are disposed in a common surface parallel to the desired frontal surface F (Fig. 2) of the grille, and which also has its channel back formed into steps which present their treads (B B etc.) in parallel upright planes at right angles to the upright medial plane P of the grille. Each of these step treads is wider than the spread of a blade, and the free edges of the treads desirably are all ma common surface F parallel tothe said proposed grille-front surface F and to the surface in which the rear cross-bar edges G and C are disposed.

Since the metal of the channel strip will usually stretch somewhat irregularly during this forming of the steps on the channel-back of the strip, this stretching would irregularly modify both the spacing and the shape of the slots S (Fig. 7) in this channel-back if these slots had been punched before the steps in it were formed, so that the tabs on the blades could not be easily inserted through these slots or speedily anchored thereafter. For these reasons, I effect the entire deforming of each cross-bar (both to its general V- front shape and into its said step formations) before punching the slots in the channel-back.

Then I provide a stationary die-block'D having on its upper face a channel D which has astepped bottom presenting treads upon which the treads (13 etc.) of the cross-bar will fit, and which has its riser walls spaced for centering the cross-bar in it. Each step-tread of this die-block has two parallel upright slots 5 extending downward from it and leading to a punching-collecting space 6 between the die-block and the bed 7 of the punchpress on which the die-blockis seated. The slots 5 in each die-block step, as well as the punchfingers' p on each treads 'of the plunger P are spaced to match the spacing between the adjacent tabs T (Fig. 5) on the rear edges of the two webs of a blade, and the consecutive pairs of the said slots and punch fingers all have their medial planes spaced by distances 9 (Figs. 9 and 10) corresponding to the spacings 9 of the medial planes 10 (Fig. 2) of consecutive blades in the proposed grille.

With the said slots 5 in the die D and the punchfingers p on the die all upright and coparallel, a downward forcing of the plunger P first causes the punch-fingers to form the needed slots 5 in the channel-back C of the cross-banand then causes the treads s on the lower face of the plunger to flatten eachtread portion (B etc.) of the channel-back of the cross-bar down upon the top of the die-block while the punch-fingers are still extending through the said channel-back. By thus proceeding, I not only obtain an exact spacing and parallelism of the slots in this channel-back, but also cause the normally forward faces of the treads (13 etc.) on this channel-back to be disposed parallel to one another (and at right angles to the medial plane P in the prospective grille) regardless of irregularities in the stretching of the metal and without distorting the slots in the channel-back of the cross-bar. Consequently, when each blade later on has its tabs inserted through the slots in the channelbacks of the cross-bars and clinched against the rear faces of the said channel-backs, as shown in Figs. 2 and 7, the medial planes P between the webs of all of the blades will be parallel to one another, and the blades will conform in their disposition to the desired frontal shape of the grille.

- Since relatively thin steel suffices for the crossbars in such grilles, the general formation of these cross-bars can readily be varied according to the desired grille-front effect, as shown by the decreased'angle A between the rear edges of each half of a channel web W in Fig. 4 in comparison with the angle A in Fig. 2. I likewise can readily give the grille a bowed front effect (as shown in Fig. 8) by bending each cross-bar in general to acontinuously horizontally curved shape, since my grille in every case will have the forward portions of its louver blades L tangential to a frontal surface F which is parallel to the common surface of the rear edges of the channel webs of the crossbars when the grille is of a V-front type as in Figs. 2 and 4, and which common frontal surface is curved concentrically with the said rear channel web edges of the cross-bars in a barrel-front grille such as Fig. 8.

From each of Figs. 2, 4 and 8 it will also be obvious, that with tabbed blades (such as those of Fig. 5) each web will have the rear edges of both of its webs seated squarely on the same flat tread portions of each cross-bar, so that the desired rigidity of the grille is readily obtained, regardless of changes in its frontalconfiguration, and without sawing slots of varyingly different depths in different portions of each cross-bar, or using different depths of such slots for respectively receiving partsof the two webs of each louver blade as also heretofore proposed.

However, if the grille is to withstand severe impacts-as for example when used on an automobile truck where the grille may bump into material projecting from a truck in front of it-my multi-stepped cross-bars can also have each tread thereof provided with slots extending through and beyond their channel-backs, so that the blade webs can be anchored after the manner disclosed in my copending application #688,634, filed September 8, 1933 on a Grille for automobile radiator fronts.

For example, Fig. 13 shows a portion of a grille in which each tread B of the cross-bar is provided with two parallel slots S which extend across the entire width of the cross-bar and to a considerably greater depth than the thickness of the channel-back of the cross-bar. In this case, each blade has the rear edge portions of both of its webs L extending through the two slots in one of these treads, and the parts of these webs which are disposed behind the channel-back B and between the two channel webs W of the cross-bar are distended away from each other and pressed partly against the rear face of the said channel-back, after the manner more fully described in my said patent application #688,634. For this method of fastening, the slots would need to be sawed in the cross-bars, instead of punched, but this sawing is expedited because each two slots always extend to a uniform distance from the front face of a tread on the crossbar. Moreover, it will be obvious that my here presented grille construction is not limited in its application to automobile fronts, but can be employed to equal advantage for window guards or the like when these are to be of a non-planar form, and that many changes might be 'made the mid-length of the cross-bar toward each end of the said bar, and each blade having both of its channel webs anchored to a single one of the said treads.

2. A grille as per claim 1, in which each crossbar is of a rearwardly open channel-section and having the said steps formed in its channel-back and presenting the forward faces of the treads of the said steps in parallel planes at right angles to the medial plane between the two channel- Webs of the cross-bar.

3. A grille comprising consecutively spaced, generally parallel and rearwardly open U-sectioned blades, and cross-bars extending transversely of the blades behind the major portion of each blade; each cross-bar having its forward part formed to present two series of steps receding in respectively opposite directions from the mid-length of the cross-bar, the said steps having their tread-forming portions presenting flat forward faces in parallel planes, andeach such tread-forming portion of a cross-bar being provided with a pair of slots respectively entered by rearward portions of two webs of one of the blades.

4. A grille as per claim 3, in which the two webs of each blade are of equal effective width in a direction at right angles to the forward face of a tread-forming part of an adjacent cross-bar, and in which each cross-bar is formed so that its rearmost portions lie in a surface parallel to the desired frontal surface to which the U-backs of the blades are tangential.

5. A grille as per claim 3, in which the two A cross-bar being of a symmetrical rearwardly open channel-section and having its channel-back formed to present two series of steps receding in respectively opposite directions from the midlength of the cross-bar, each blade having portions of the rear edges of both webs of its blade bearing rearwardly against a single tread of one of the steps on each cross-bar; the cross-bars having the rear edges of their channel webs disposed in a common surface substantially parallel to a common surface tangential to the free edges of the treads of the said steps on the cross-bars.

7. A grille for guarding anair-admitting aperture, comprising generally upright blades, all of counterpart rearwardly open channel section and each having its channel webs of equal width; and vertically spaced cross-bars extending transverselyof the blades behind the latter, each crossbar having its frontal portion formed into steps presenting upright treads consecutively receding from the longitudinal center of the cross-bar, the said treads on the two longitudinal halves of each cross-bar presenting their free edges respectively in two rearwardly diverging surfaces, and each blade having the rear edges of both of its webs bearing against and being secured to a single one of the said treads; the said treads extending in coparallel planes each at right angles to the medial plane between the two webs of the adjacent blade, whereby the blades are all disposed with their medial planes substantially coparallel and with the most forward portions of the blades in the two lateral halves of the grille disposed respectively in two rearwardly diverging surfaces which surfaces are respectively parallel to the aforesaid surfaces.

LEE B. GREEN. 

